welcome! jeremy freese is a professor in sociology at northwestern university. he finds blogging to be a good diversion from insomnia and a far better use of time than television.

Friday, September 30, 2005

i have retrieved wads of lint from my belly button that weigh more than this

I'm leaving on a 6am flight from my annual trip to Iowa City to get together with friends from college and watch a football game. I decided that I didn't want to check any luggage, so the foam Hawkeye head is staying home. As are my giant foam talons. My brand new black iPod Nano*, on the other hand, is coming along.

* Yes, black. Yes, 4 GB. Yes, purchased just this evening. Yes, it's awesome. Yes, I recognize that this makes it even more difficult for you to slog ahead in your longrunning quixotic battle to sustain your belief that you are roughly as cool as I am. Consider me taking a picture of myself wearing the foam hawkhead to be a sort of reparation.

Or, if you don't want to sell the ipod to islander, perhaps you could give it to me for free. Also, if you don't already wear your foam hat as a bike helmet, you should. Because rhymes with scrabble is right about it making you look like Quirrell. Actually, you should probably wear it when you jog, too, because you might get distracted and run into things or fall down.

It looks like there are a lot of iPod newbies here, so someone should mention that buying additional iPods is not typically a rational (functional) decision based on replacing the existing model with more capable technology. Rather, you buy more iPods because they are cool and you like them. To many people, it's more comparable to having pieces of art. You wouldn't necessarily give away (or sell at a discount) your existing piece of art because you bought another one, would you? Of course not, because (and here's the kicker) you can own TWO pieces of art. This might not be the case with Jeremy, but it's a fairly common sentiment among iPod owners (and Apple loyalists more generally) of my acquaintance.

You need to make better use of your time. I didn't have blogging in mind when I approved your leave. You're at Harvard, there are better things to do. For example, take my son to lunch, or better yet, to dinner at Tamarind, a terrific Thai place out on Mass Ave. He'll show you how to get there. You can reach him at halaby@fas.harvard.edu.